HARRY MORGAN-WINTER
He took another drink and the Bacardi warmed
and helped him but he felt cold and hollow all
around his stomach still. His whole insides were cold.
'Want a drink?9 he asked the boy at the wheel.
'No, thanks/ the boy said. 'I don't drink.' Harry
could see him smile in the binnacle light. He was a
nice-looking boy all right. Pleasant talking, too.
Til take one/ he said. He swallowed a big one
but it could not warm the dank cold part that had
spread from his stomach to all over the inside of his
chest now. He put the bottle down on the cockpit
floor.
'Keep her on that course/ he said to the boy.
Tm going to have a look at the motors.5
He opened the hatch and stepped down. Then
locked the hatch up with a long hook that set into
a hole in the flooring. He stooped over the motors,
with his one hand felt the water manifold, the
cylinders, and put his hand on the stuffing boxes.
He tightened the two grease cups a turn and a half
each. Quit stalling, he said to himself. Come on,
quit stalling. Where're your balls now? Under my
chin, I guess, he thought.
He looked out of the hatch, He could almost
touch the two seats over the gas tanks where the
seasick men lay. The boy's back was toward him,
sitting on the high stool, outlined clearly by the
binnacle light. Turning, he could see Roberto
sprawled in the chair in the stern, silhouetted against
the dark water.
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